The invention relates in general to the field of cooling devices for computer hardware. In particular, it is directed to a cooling device comprising deformable sections, which thermally contact components of the computer hardware upon deforming.
This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention disclosed below. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise explicitly indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Computer cooling is needed to remove heat produced by computer components and keep such components operating within acceptable temperature limits. Various cooling techniques are known, e.g., air- or liquid-based. Although more complex to implement, liquid cooling is more efficient, making it suitable for high performance computer applications.
In a stacked system of liquid-cooled, high-power density electrical components (e.g., server, microserver, or high performance systems), removing heat without applying additional, load forces is usually insufficient. Given that there is no space left for force elements around each cold plate or vapor chamber, the force need be provided by in-series stacking of the elements, to obtain a suitable thermal contact. Yet, the elements stacked cannot be released without releasing the force in neighboring elements, which impairs replacement of a single element, e.g., a single printed circuit board (or PCB). Rework can only be done for a series of PCBs.
In many high power density electrical components, additional thermal load activation is achieved manually, e.g., by screwing on springs. This is bound to human error during manufacturing, which may reach 1/100. Such errors require field reworks.
Cooling systems are known, which use flexible sections in heat pipes or vapor chambers, see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,279, U.S. Pat. No. 8,534,347 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,921. Several liquids may be involved in the heat pipes or vapor chambers, as discussed in US 2008/0236795 A1.